1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to machine guideways, and more particularly to a machine guideway used in machines on production lines.
2. Description of Prior Art
Machine processing in factories plays a very important role in industrialized societies. Generally, speed and precision are two basic criteria used to evaluate the efficacy of machine processing. Especially for large processing machines, improving the processing speed can lower processing costs and enhance the machine's efficiency. The speed of a processing machine mainly depends on the time needed to actually work on a workpiece positioned on a supporting block of a guideway of the processing machine as the block moves along the guideway, and a time needed to return the block along the guideway to its original starting position after the workpiece has been worked on. The time needed to work on a workpiece is difficult to shorten, because this often entails reducing precision. The time needed to return the block is an important avenue by which the processing speed can be improved.
Generally, several basic means have been employed by technicians in order to improve the processing speed of processing machines. For example, lubricants can be added into the guideways, or rollers can be employed in the guideways. These means lower coefficients of friction in the guideways and improve the efficiency of processing machines.
However, the above described methods cannot completely eliminate the friction in the guideways. The friction not only slows down processing speeds, but also causes the guideways to wear over time. In addition, heat generated by the friction can cause deformation of the guideways. Such wear and deformation reduce the precision of processing.